Happy Birthday.....America?

By Conservative Ken

You know, the 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. I'm a long-time historical nut and grew up in suburban Washington, DC. As such, I spent considerable time in my childhood with my family visiting historical places that were prominent in the birth of our nation. We went to Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown, Virginia; Valley Forge and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and of course numerous sites in Washington, DC and suburban Maryland. Later, Boston, New York, Trenton, and others. My father was very focused upon making sure that his children understood the history of our nation (past and present), and didn't hesitate to spend some time in a car to take us to these places so we could see what we were reading about in school. He wanted us to understand the courage, conviction, passion, and determination of our Founding Fathers and to never forget the sacrifices that they made - and others have continued to make - to provide us an opportunity to live in the greatest nation on earth. This weekend, we celebrate the 233rd birthday of our nation. Our Founding Fathers would hardly recognize their work.

If one spends some time reading The Federalist Papers and contrasts those writings with the functional manner in which the government administers our lives, it's not too difficult to imagine John Adams, Sam Adams, George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson asking us, "what part of liberty don't you understand?" Is that Ben Franklin saying, "guys, we were trying to give you a country in which the government didn't intervene in every part of your lives". I think I can picture Thomas Payne saying, "the name of my publication was "Common Sense". And, I'm pretty sure that Patrick Henry didn't say, "give me an overbearing government or give me death".

Sadly, the truth is that our nation is moving farther and farther away from its history and roots. Our history is being hijacked by the politically correct crowds as part of an effort to demonize the concepts of self-reliance, self-determination, sacrifice, and risk; and to replace them with concepts such as cradle-to-grave protection, socialism, popularity, and guaranteed equality of results. To those of us for whom our heritage remains an important aspect of the American life, a new awakening must take place that will focus the values and relevance of our past and effectively bind them to our present and future as a viable nation and society. For in the absence of such an awakening, the intellectual laziness and political cowardice of today's politicians may well condemn our nation to a second-class status later in this century.

Happy birthday, America.